Five Nights at Freddy’s (FNaF) creator Scott Cawthon has issued an apology to fans following the release of the latest addition to his horror franchise, RPG spin-off Five Nights at Freddy’s World.
After the game hit shelves late last week many users were quick to point out that a number of key features were either broken, or missing entirely.
As it stands, FNaF World – which retails for $9.99 – has a “very positive” rating from 1,361 Steam user reviews, although the “most helpful” reviews are largely negative, slamming the game for being “lazy”, broken, and a “waste of money.”
Cawthon is known for his ability to turn around games quickly, having released five FNaF titles in just over 17 months. This time, however, the developer confessed he “never felt I’d released a game too early… until now.”
“This isn’t exactly an announcement that I’m enjoying writing, but it’s one that I feel I owe to the community,” said Cawthon in a post on the Steam forums.
“There are a lot of features that this game should have had before release, features that I was told about, but ignored and didn’t implement. Features such as being able to see what abilities do during battle, or being able to see a stats page for your characters. These are features that any good RPG would have.”
According to Cawthon, his eagerness to let fans get their hands on the game caused him to overlook important details – a mistake he intends to correct by releasing updates in the coming weeks.
At the time of writing the developer has already added a number of new features, including an overworld map, attack command descriptions, and byte and chip descriptions.
It’s expected even more updates will be added in the near-future as Cawthon continues to “add features to the game and make it right.”
UPDATE: Cawthon has removed the game from Steam and is offering refunds to all players who purchased it; he plans to continue development on the game and offer it for free.